Education reform has been at the forefront of educational research for decades, depicted by government initiatives and policy, research, and pedagogical changes and recommendations. When considering elements of educational change, policy, best practices, and individual merit and retention have also been heavily in the spotlight, such as "A…

In this study, we reflected on the process of designing and implementing a civics curriculum model focused on increasing upper-grade secondary students' involvement in local civic activity. We prioritized examining the challenges and possibilities of institutionalizing partnerships between teachers, students, community leaders, and local…

This paper documents the ways that two learning spaces--a community-based youth organizing group and a high school social studies classroom--provided different opportunities for Latinx youth to take on critical civic identities characterized by a critical consciousness, a motivation for social justice, and feelings of civic agency. By examining…

This study contributes knowledge about how a digital badge system integrated into an online, subject-matter-specific, and competency-based professional development (PD) program affected teachers' experiences with and perceptions of the program activities. The report presents findings from a one-year exploratory study of an online PD program, and…

Describes a history program at the Suzanne Middle School, Walnut, California, in which students create, design, and promote local history activities. Emphasizes the accomplishments of the program, including a rise in the school's state test scores from the twenty-second percentile to the ninety-fourth percentile. (RW)

Details a series of service learning projects conducted by a California middle school social studies class. Creative, inexpensive, and substantive, the projects included writing to Manuel Noreiga in prison, creating a feed-the-homeless garden, and translating city documents into other languages. (MJP)

The National Committee for Support of the Public Schools focused on the claims of students and parents at its Seventh Annual Conference. Topics covered were student unrest, community involvement, relevant issue oriented approach to social studies, instructional television, student-run educational experiments, school management, classroom…

The "Olympic Heritage" year in California provides an excellent opportunity to motivate students to examine their heritage from ancient Greece and to advance cross-curricular coordination. The very successful 1981-82 "Shakespeare Year" program can be used as a model. A proposed Olympic project is described. (RM)

A study was conducted in order to determine the specific classroom qualities and characteristics that promote and motivate students to develop attitudes and behaviors conducive to civic participation. One classroom is a bi-lingual sixth grade, located in an older neighborhood school in a coastal southern California city and the other is a…

Summarizes the responses to a survey of 106 community colleges in California concerning their geography programs. Briefly discusses information regarding facilities and faculty. Examines comparative enrollments in cultural, physical, world regional, and California geography courses. (MJP)

This annual meeting site guide is the fourth to be published by the National Council for Geographic Education as part of the "Pathways in Geography" series. The chapters illustrate some of the interactions between people and place that have helped shape the Santa Barbara (California) region over the centuries. The book includes an…

To provide educational relevance, enable students to gain community awareness, and provide opportunities for self-discipline and individualized learning, an interdisciplinary team (Problems of Democracy, English, and Consumer Economics) in a California high school offer a one-semester course to senior high school students in which the classroom is…

In this unit, students draw from historical and community resources to organize the sequence of events in local history and describe how each period of settlement left its mark on the land. Students draw from historical and community resources (maps, photographs, oral histories, newspapers) to demonstrate an understanding of the growth and…

The police Youth Protection Unit (YPU) has four full-time officers under San Jose's police chief. The objectives of the YPU are: to prevent juvenile delinquency, encourage respect for law enforcement, provide information, expose youth to policeman and police work, and to given them places to go and things to do with their leisure time. In the…

This California state curriculum model for grade 9 about Cesar Chavez explains that grade 9 is an elective year for social studies courses and that one of the electives is a course about contemporary California. It suggests that students in schools offering this course could study the role of Chavez in 20th century California and his legacy. A…